The United States and Europe are running out of weapons to send to Ukraine. CNBC. In both the United States and Europe weapons are produced in small amounts during peacetime. Those stockpiles have largely been depleted. In order to provide more 155 Howitzers the United States would have to disarm their own units. Other popular weapons, like anti-tank Javelin missiles, anti-air stinger and the HIMRAS MLRS system are also depleted to the point where the Pentagon is no longer able to provide them to Ukraine. Production of weapons is scheduled to increase but it will take a very long time to ramp up production.
My Comment:
This seems like a fairly obvious consequence to sending billions of dollars of equipment to Ukraine. Eventually you run out and given we are in peacetime production, it will take a very long time to build up stocks again. There is very little that can be done in the short term to provide these weapons to Ukraine.
Not that I agree to sending weapons to Ukraine in the first place. I have always said all that does is prolong the war and get a huge number of innocent soldiers and civilians killed for no reason. But since apparently nobody in congress or Washington agrees I guess we are out of luck.
The other problem is that the attrition rate for these weapons is insane. Many of these weapons get destroyed even before they get to the front lines and many of them that do make it there are destroyed soon after. And even if they aren't they often run out of ammo fairly quick. Modern combat, in Ukraine at least, is a meat grinder and these weapons are destroyed as fast as they arrive.
That should be a huge argument against the wholesale giving of weapons to Ukraine. If modern combat is so brutal that weapons are used so quickly, doesn't that mean that we should keep more of our own weapons in reserve? What happens if war with Russia or China breaks out and we have no weapons but the ones currently deployed? We would be in massive trouble then and it's not like war with either country is unlikely.
Indeed, I wouldn't be surprised if we are at war with either country or both before the end of Joe Biden's term. He has been provoking both countries constantly and I could see either of them going to war with us to protect their interests in Ukraine or Taiwan. Indeed, both the attack on the Nord Stream pipeline (which, to be fair, might not have been the United States) or Biden's comments on Taiwan would be a casus belli for Russia or China. I think the leadership of both Russia and China are more sane and cool headed than Biden could ever be but eventually they are going to get tired of him and it could lead to war. And if that happens we won't have the weapons we need to defend ourselves.
Producing new weapons is a solution but it is a long term one. I it will take months or even years to ramp up production and even then it isn't going to fix anything if we just keep sending those weapons to Ukraine.
And one wonders how on earth are we going to pay for all of this? There is a constant stream of billion dollar giveaways for Ukraine and the only way I have seen that they are paying for it is by either printing new money or borrowing it. Given how bad the economy is getting (my own company just put out a notice that they are cracking down on overtime) eventually the money just isn't going to be there anymore. And then, not only will we be broke, we will be disarmed as well. Given both Russia and China having an opportunity to get what they want.
I have said for awhile that our Ukraine policy is misguided at best and utterly insane at worst. We are wasting billions of dollars and risking a massive nuclear war with Russia and for what? So Biden's money laundering scheme doesn't get exposed? To stick it to the Russians? Or just because all of Washington DC is a bunch of warmongers? It makes zero sense and I sincerely hope things change quickly in the future.
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